


What If...

by this_is_alx



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 08:44:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1339195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/this_is_alx/pseuds/this_is_alx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quick one-shot about the build-up to the Hale house fire. Features past Derek/Paige and Derek/Kate. The focus is on Derek's thoughts and feelings before, during, and immediately after the fire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What If...

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Teen Wolf fanfic and the first story that I've written in years. Enjoy!

On the day of the Hale house fire, Laura and Derek were at the mall.

Kate had been trying to get Derek to introduce her to his family for months and everytime she asked, he would tell her that his family wouldn't approve. They would only see how much older she was and not how perfect they were for each other. Even when she suggested that they lie about her age, Derek refused. He knew his family and he knew they would hear her heartbeat stutter everytime Kate said that she was a homeschooled high school student and not a 22 year old college senior.

Finally, she gave him an ultimatum:introduce her to his family or break-up.

The idea of losing Kate crushed Derek. He had been so broken after Paige. Nothing, not even his family - his pack - could help him out of the cloud of guilt and self-hatred he fell into after that. He stopped trying in school and his 3-point-something GPA dropped to well below the athletics requirement. He was kicked off the basketball team, not that it mattered because he hadn't been to a single practice or team bonding session since Paige. He had stopped talking to his friends, stopped goofing off in the hallways after school, stopped attending family dinners or rolling around with his siblings in the woods.

When Paige died, Derek died with her, leaving behind an empty shell of a person that went through the motions of being alive without actually living.

And then he met Kate.

Kate was older and beautiful and she didn't try to make Derek talk about his feelings. She would sit with him for hours in the little coffee shop on her campus that he met her in. She didn't try to make him smile or laugh. She would just complain about her classes and the person of the week that she couldn't stand. It was refreshing to meet someone just as angry at the world as she was. Before he even realized, he had fallen so hard for her and small parts of old Derek were beginning to come back to life.

So, to keep Kate from breaking up with him, Derek promised to bring her to the family reunion of sorts that would be taking place the next weekend. His entire family, from grandparents to second and third cousins would be in the Hale house and Kate could meet all of them at once. Kate was thrilled.

The family arrived on Friday and they all spent the night camping in the woods, shifting and running together. The next morning, everyone moved into the house and began preparing for the big dinner. The big dinner that Kate would be attending.

The nerves were driving Derek crazy the entire morning and he was beginning to pass the crazy onto the rest of his family. After he had paced the entire first floor for the 34th time, his dad stormed out of the kitchen, flour in his hair and a stained apron wrapped around his waist, demanding that Derek sit down or get out. Laura took this as an opportunity to escape her job as sous-chef to their dad's culinary madness and dragged Derek to the only place she could think of that would get them out of the house for the whole day: the mall.

They spent the day goofing off in stores, trying on clothes (in Laura's case), being forced to try on ridiculous outfits (in Derek's case), eating junk food and playing in the arcade. Derek even bought a necklace to give to Kate at dinner. Laura, the only person who knew that he was bringing a girl to dinner, had picked it out for him. It was a small diamond circle that Laura said looked like a full moon. Derek thought it was perfect, even though Kate wouldn't understand the significance.

And then, they went home.

They could hear the sirens and smell the smoke before they even reached their property. Even though they both tried to believe that there was a California forest fire or a campfire gone wrong, something in the back of their minds made them know. They knew that they would, as they did, find their house burning. They just hadn't expected for everyone to still be inside.

The sheriff who rushed up to the car as soon as they pulled up explained that everyone had been trapped inside and that as soon as the firefighters had contained the blaze, they would hunt for survivors.

20 minutes later, the fire had been extinguished and blackened remains of the house smoldered. The firefighters pulled Peter out of the house, screaming in agony, and rushed him into an ambulance. The ambulance had driven away, sirens blaring, and an eery silence settled over the area.

Derek held a sobbing Laura as Sheriff Stilinski quietly explained that he would be taking them to the sheriff's office while the firefighters and deputies searched for any salvageable remains. No one actually said the words "They're all dead," because they didn't have to be said.

As Derek huddled with Laura in the back of the cruiser, he felt something digging into his thigh. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small jewelry box holding a small diamond necklace shaped like a full moon.

The necklace made him think about Kate and the dinner that was scheduled for that night. The dinner that she had never shown up for even though she had no way to know that it wouldn't be taking place. Derek felt sick.

On the day of the Hale house fire, Derek didn't know that Kate Argent was of the infamous Argent hunters. He didn't know that she was the one that had orcehstrated the fire that killed most of his family. He thought that maybe she had just gotten cold feet or had turned around when she smelled the smoke and heard the sirens.

It wasn't until 5 years later, when Derek found out that Laura had been investigating the fire, that he knew for sure what Kate had done. He wasn't surprised because, somehow, he knew the night of the fire. When Laura told him, he closed his eyes and asked himself the question he'd been wondering everyday for 5 years.

What if he had let Kate break up with him and had never told her about the one night when his entire family of werewolves would be in one house?

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! I'm thinking about expanding this and exploring the idea of what would have happened if Derek had let Kate break up with him (maybe with no fire). Let me know what you think. 
> 
> I have a few other fic ideas also. 
> 
> I just got a tumblr! You can find out more about future stories and get sneak peeks. My tumblr is this-is-alx.tumblr.com.


End file.
